Samsung Develops 4Gb Flash Chip, Fusion Memory
Samsung Electronics has announced the world’ firsts 4 Gigabit (Gb) NAND Flash memory chip in a 70 nm process. The new chip is aimed at mobile devices from handhelds to mp3 players. In addition, the company announced a new concept single chip memory solution, called fusion memory.
4Gb NAND Flash Memory
SAMSUNG’s world first 4Gb NAND flash is the fourth generation of NAND flash memory, following a growth curve that doubles its density every twelve months: 256Mb in 1999, 512Mb in 2000, 1Gb in 2001, 2Gb in 2002, and 4Gb in 2003. Development of the 4Gb NAND flash design demonstrates NAND’s high growth potential once again.
At the new higher density levels, nonvolatile memory is now a viable choice for solid-state data storage, replacing magnetic tapes and low-density hard disk drives. NAND flash will also target mobile applications, such as notebook PCs, tablet PCs, mobile handsets, MP3 players and PDAs, that have space, weight and power constraints.
Samsung’s 4Gb NAND flash memory incorporates a 70nn node design to achieve the industry’s smallest memory cell size of 0.025um2. The 4Gb NAND flash is the industry’s first to feature a 300-angstrom tungsten gate, which reduces inter-cell resistance and noise level to ensure higher performance in multi-gigabit memory designs. SAMSUNG expects the new tungsten gate to be adaptable in up to 50nm designs. The 70nm node also opens the door to higher economies of scale. A simple comparison of 70nm over the previous 90nm will instantly boost production by 50 percent.
The global market for NAND flash memory is expected to jump from $3 billion in 2003 to $16 billion by 2007, showing a more than five-fold volume increase in just four years.
Fusion Memory
Samsing also announced a new concept in memory design called Fusion Memory. Fusion memory takes the multi-chip package and system-in-package concepts one step further to deliver a single design combining memory and logic. It is an integrated, single-chip that combines high density memory and logic, together with software availability. The first Fusion memory device is a 512Mb NAND flash memory with logic interface built on a single piece of silicon, called OneNAND. The OneNAND chip will reduce system manufacturer’s cost and time-to-market as they will no longer need to optimize the system environment around the NAND flash. Samsung expects that the new Fusion technology will drive acceptance of NAND only system designs to replace NOR Flash+Memory combinations in applications with high data processing throughput requirements.
”Stand-alone memory components are facing tough new demands from digital convergence in mobile and digital consumer markets and Samsung’s advanced memory solutions will play a key role in enabling new generations of digital products,” said Dr. Chang Gyu Hwang, president of Samsung’s memory division.
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RE: Cookies?
I'm not a smartass in real life, I just portray one on the web.
????
If this is so, are 4 megabyte cards on the way this year?
And the biggies; how much $$$$ and how fast?
With one chip sollutions of 512 MB, I expect to see a huge extension of the UX50s design incorporating flash memory right inside. If some kind of flash ROM (now a day "Read Only Memory" has become a huge misnomer as virtually all ROMs are now rewritable) chip has to be included for the OS anyway, and you can put in one with 512 MB, you have room for hours of music and video without even paying for a flash card. That is something I predicted would happen a year ago. I don't often get to be right about such predictions. Even Foo and Mike Cane's critics get predictions right more than I do! But, I saw this coming. This new huge Samsug push makes it a virtual certainty.
RE: ????
These are gigaBIT not gigaBYTE. Anyone who really knows for sure who could comment and clarify care to respond? Any news on how the price would compare to current prices? The trends seem clear, the only difference here is that there appears to be a way to crate memory cards without any support chips as the support is built-in somehow.
Of course, that support is probably for standards like MMC, SD, and CF cards. Sony and Lexar will almost certainly need to add their own controller chips for their claim to the fastest I/O. That will keep MSPros selling at a premium price. I want out of that Sony cash cow treadmill. Sony would have to do something pretty big to get me to buy anything now.
RE: ????
On rereading, now I see what your are commenting on, Helf. MY BAD.
The second line [i]should[/i] read "4 Gigabyte". The rest of the OP should express what I wanted to know, though. Is the rest of it right?
RE: ????
RE: ????
These chips are 4 Gb (gigabits) Since there are 8 bits in a byte, that means these chips can hold 512 MB (megaBYTES) of data. Now, if a card is produced with 8 of these chips on it, that will result in 4 GB (gigaBYTES) of memory.
Now, since we are all clear now, the questions are: "how much $$$$, and how fast?"
I doubt anyone here could answer either question though.
RE: ????
1. is this 512mb
2. is there an sd 1 gigabyte chip at present
Steve
RE: ????
The next big move for me would be to see 1 gig cards for $100. I think CF has reached $200 or so for 1 gig and $100 for 512 MB. The SD maxes out at 512 currently and goes for more than $250. If it all falls from there to where the 4 gig cards are $250, then maybe by the time these are in full production we will see 1 gig cards for $100.
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